11. How can we fix the harms created by social media? Talking with Trisha Prabhu of ReThink.

How Tech Becomes Law

How can we fix the harms created by social media? In this episode, we talk to Trisha Prabhu from ReThink about addressing cyberbullying and other harms on social media. Listen to Trisha discuss how as a teenager she came to building an anti-cyberbullying app to tackle the problems that she saw firsthand in her community and with her peers and how working on this problem over almost a decade has shaped her perspective on what the future of content moderation can look like. As a scholar, Trisha has dived deep into how the U.S. has confronted the need to balance free speech with other public interests to successfully regulate other media technologies in the past, and she discusses how these historical case studies as well as upcoming regulations in the U.K. and the E.U. show a path forward on creating effective regulations for social media. Finally, as a young woman of color tech founder from Harvard, Trisha talks about what her career journey has been like thus far, what advice she would give to students wanting to pursue a career in public interest tech, and how the tech industry itself can become more welcoming to young people from more diverse backgrounds.

Guest bio:

Trisha Prabhu is the 21-year-old Founder & CEO of ReThink, a patented app tackling cyberbullying. She is also an undergraduate student at Harvard University; next year, she will begin postgraduate study at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Trisha's driving vision is to build an Internet that is an empowering, kind space for young people everywhere.

Related links:

ReThink. https://rethinkwords.com/

About the podcast:

How Tech Becomes Law is a weekly public interest tech podcast about technology, public policy, and career advice. We are your co-hosts, Jinyan Zang and Dhruv Gupta. Each episode uncovers insights from leaders in government, business, journalism, and academia to highlight how technology can be built in the public interest. Interviewees discuss how technology can move society forward, what role they play in shaping this, and how students and young professionals can impact the path forward.

We are supported by the Public Interest Tech Lab. Listen to us on your podcast platform of choice. You can find us online at howtechbecomeslaw.org and on social media channels @techbecomeslaw.